Keeping Up With Change: How Marketers Give Customers What They Want

CMO Network -
I write about how marketing strategy can stray from business strategy.

(Photo by Matt SaylesInvision/AP)

One week he's in polka-dots, the next week he’s in stripes, 'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion."

Ray Davies

Consumer tastes can change on a dime.

The attitudinal undercurrents can be mystifying, difficult to detect, alien to interpret, dangerous to place a sizable bet on, and visible only in retrospect.

Can research help marketers anticipate these shifts and get ahead of the curve to identify trends?

At Zappos, general manager of ecommerce marketing Joe Grusman has identified one of the many challenges. “The challenge of using customer research to create effective marketing is remembering that it’s about using a scalpel and not a hatchet.”

But it’s not just the desired product. It’s the desired experience.

Grusman says that keeping up with the customer goes beyond the merchandise.

“We’re constantly thinking of how we can create the best customer experience possible, whether that’s through interactions with our site, calls with our customer loyalty team, or consuming content through our social channels.

“We’re always trying to think about our customer as a whole person, and that means delivering WOW (as we say here) outside the norm. Our customer loyalty team is constantly listening to customers’ needs beyond their purchase and going the extra mile.”

Life In The Retailing Fast Lane

At Crate and Barrel, marketing vice-president Suzy Cirulis sees the accelerating ebb and flow of tastes as an opportunity to pay increasingly close attention to the customer.

“This is an exciting time in retail because the pace of our industry is changing rapidly so you can take more risks. Not only is feedback from customers more readily available and immediate, but trends come and go faster as well.

“Our customer expects us to innovate and use our experience engaging with artists and designers from around the world to share what we find to be inspiring and new.

“We look at the changing needs and priorities of the market and create a space for discovery with fresh ideas and trends that are most relevant to them.”

Crate and Barrel is a legacy brand where traditions often embrace innovation… and where the dangers of irrelevance are sidestepped by attentive listening to the customer.

“We know our customers value quality products that are both elegant and functional in their design and use this lens as our safeguard to inform everything that we do,” says Cirulis.

What’s noteworthy in this process is the consumer’s appetite for ideas.

“While each customer has their own tastes and style, they look to us for our design expertise and inspiration.

“We think it’s important to push them to try new things. We look at the changing needs and priorities of the market and create a space for discovery with fresh ideas and trends that are most relevant to them.”

Stirring The Secret Sauce At Zappos

“The biggest thing is just listening,” says Grusman.

“We’re 100% online so one of the most tangible things we have is feedback. We’ve created opportunities to gather and decipher customer feedback in a number of ways.”

Service is embedded in the Zappos culture.

“Customer Service isn’t just a value proposition that we can showcase, it’s something we exercise in our decision-making processes.”

The Customer Evolution At Crate And Barrel

At Crate and Barrel, marketers who have helped navigate the organization from brick and mortar to digital are focused on delivering personalized experiences.

“For example,” says Cirulis, “if a customer shares that they’re getting married, moving or redecorating a living room, they expect us to deliver curated content that fits their style and product needs.

“Through this, we have adapted to create a more personalized experience for different types of customers–from gift registrants and new movers to entertainers and designers.”

The art, science, and knack for knowing what customers want has always included a dash of anticipation.

At Crate and Barrel, Suzy Cirulis says today’s behaviors can help to identify tomorrow’s trends.

“We have over 100M visitors on our website each year and another 19 million engaging with us via mobile. Observations from these touchpoints are incredibly valuable and help shape insights about preferences and trends.”

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